Whatever Happened To Bottle Bright After Shark Tank?
There are plenty of "Shark Tank" companies that don't exist anymore, even if their episodes ended with the sharks making a deal. There are also companies that succeeded despite receiving negative comments and mockery from many of the sharks. Bottle Bright, a natural cleaning tablet, belongs to the latter group. When Seth Friedman and Justin Koehneke appeared in Season 6, Episode 14 asking for $75,000 in exchange for 15% of their company, they really weren't asking much — at least compared to many of the other entrepreneurs that appear on the show.
After their pitch, they were met with negativity from most of the sharks. "I clean really bad ideas right out of the shark tank," Kevin O'Leary told them. "And this falls under that category." Mark Cuban called them desperate, Barbara Corcoran said they'd created mistrust after losing money, and Robert Herjavec claimed there was no demand for their product. Just when it seemed like hope was gone, Lori Greiner swooped in and made them a deal for $75,000 in exchange for a 33.3% share of their company.
Lori vowed to get them on QVC for free advertising and to get them into Bed, Bath, and Beyond — and she did. The tablets are a favorite on Amazon with 4.8/5 stars and over 4,000 reviews. With Hydrapak acquiring Bottle Bright for an undisclosed amount in 2016, it's apparent that despite being overlooked by all of the sharks except Lori, Bottle Bright became a success story.
Lori Greiner believed in their product
Despite Forbes' claim that "Shark Tank's" Lori Greiner is the least likely to close a deal, she came through for Seth Friedman and Justin Koehneke and their Bottle Bright business. "I don't agree with a lot of the comments that have been made up here," she told them. "I think that this is a solution to a big problem, so I'm gonna make you an offer." Despite Kevin O'Leary's disbelief, she stands firm that she knows there's a market for their product.
The two Vermont mountain bikers came up with the product when they realized how difficult it was to get the inside of their hydration bags clean. Tired of using harmful chemicals like bleach to clean out their bottles, they created their natural product using mineral and organic-based ingredients instead. But the sharks didn't see much potential in the product, with Robert Herjavec even saying that "anybody that truly cares about cleaning their water bottle already has an option."
Lori helped prove the naysayers wrong. The effervescent tablets are still going strong, selling on their website, Amazon, REI, and even at Whole Foods. After the company itself was sold to Hydrapak, Seth Friedman and Justin Koehneke seem to have gone their separate ways. Friedman doesn't seem to have a LinkedIn page, while Koehneke's LinkedIn says that he's been self-employed as an email marketing specialist since 2020.